


Deadshipz

by guremahishin



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 02:38:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6734551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guremahishin/pseuds/guremahishin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rei and Keito used to be in DEADMANZ together, had matching stage outfits, so on and so forth. And now they act like exes when they talk, act like they don't care about each other anymore but help each other out anyway. Someone had to write something for them eventually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deadshipz

It’s not supposed to be happening. They’ve split up, into different groups, and they aren’t close like they once were. But to see them now - and on other similar occasions - no one would know it. Or those who do know might think if they didn’t know better, that distance was a pretense. But it’s as things always are when people use the phrase “if I didn’t know better,” of course.

Sometimes Keito can’t remember what drove them apart. “Creative differences” is so vague, but also all the answer he can provide. It’s also impersonal and explains nothing between the two of them, but he leaves it at that anyway.

They’re not free of having to interact, and in fact, it’s suspicious sometimes that Keito would need to talk to Rei specifically on behalf of the rest of UNDEAD. Keito is also oddly helpful for someone who claims not to have to worry about Rei anymore. Clearly, he can’t quit as easily as he would like it to seem. Maybe the issue between them isn’t as important as he wanted to believe if things are this transparent, if his resolve to be cold and indifferent and distant from someone once so important is so weak.

So it started off as any other time - with a failed attempt at a cold, brief interaction. The next step of which is always veering off topic, bringing up the fact they’re no longer close, apparently, and one of them (Keito will blame Rei) suggesting some kind of mischief together. Sometimes that ends before it starts, sometimes Keito will find himself caught up in it for a bit.

Every once in a while, however, it leads to something different. This is one such time. It can’t have helped that Keito needn’t have even spoken to Rei for the information he needed, but he chose to. From there, it’s frighteningly easy for them to get carried away talking about one thing or another, whether or not the subject matter is entirely amiable or pleasant.

This time, Rei’s suggested mischief isn’t the most… well,  _ mischievous _ thing Keito can imagine, but it’s all the same to him when he agrees. He questions himself every time he does, and yet he ends up doing so again. So today he’s found himself skipping class with Rei to nap or rest or what have you in a private, shady corner of the school grounds.

It’s not a sunny day to begin with, of course - that’s likely part of why Rei is out. But it’s a shady corner nonetheless because that, too, suits Rei, and Keito finds it all relaxing despite himself and despite the fact that he should be guarded around Rei for whatever those damn reasons are.

They’re quiet for a time, Rei with his eyes closed, apparently trying to actually nap. But Keito is awake and thinking, laying on his side the better to look at Rei and contemplate what they’re doing here. The answers aren’t coming to him, though.

Is skipping class to lay around questioning himself next to someone he’s no longer close with really worth it? He wonders long enough that he has to speak up.

“Why do you ask me to do these things with you?”

His response is a noncommittal shrug that Rei manages without moving his hands from behind his head. His eyes stay closed as well. Naturally, Keito isn’t satisfied with that.

“You  _ must _ have a reason.”

Rei opens an eye just enough to look at him. “Why do you accept?”

A good question, actually, and one Keito doesn’t have a ready answer for.

Or rather, he has an answer, but he’s not ready to give it, or even face it himself. Though avoiding that is looking less likely than he’d prefer. He can’t be here, or acknowledge he’s done this before, or that he might do it again, without having this answer. He can wonder about Rei asking him to do this all he wants, but it’s meaningless if he agrees without knowing why. Or it would bother him, at the very least.

Rei lets his eye slide closed again, seeming to accept that he won’t be getting an answer. And having that pressure off, somehow, makes it easier for Keito to speak up.

“I guess it’s...probably because I miss you.”

He’s about to turn around, lay facing the other way after admitting that, but before he can actually proceed with doing so, Rei has grabbed his tie and pulled him close enough to kiss. In fact, he does touch his lips to Keito softly, not much more than a brush against each other. But it’s enough.

“Then you’ve answered your own question; it’s the same for me.”

That, too, is enough for Keito not to pull away, to stay, to lean in and kiss him again, even; to keep kissing him until, slowly, their lips part and eventually their tongues become involved too. He’s propped up over Rei, on his elbow, and there are plenty of thoughts about his fingers in Rei’s hair that don’t quite suit their position. He can’t deny the butterflies as their mouths move against each other, nor can he deny the thoughts of other ways he’d like to kiss Rei. That makes his heart skip to consider: kissing again, multiple times.

This isn’t unfamiliar, is the thing; he misses it, and it manages to feel almost new again, like this. Or at least Keito is unused to it, familiar or not, and the thrill of kissing like this is back, if it ever left in the first place.

He couldn’t begin to place how long it goes on, but after some time, they part, and Rei’s content but smug or knowing - or both - face is all Keito needs to know it was a mistake. But one he’s going to, maybe even right now, gladly make again. And again, and again, until he recognizes that ever trying to stop in the first place was the real mistake.

**Author's Note:**

> I was doomed from the moment I was told this ship was anything like Kougino.
> 
> Here's to those of you that led me to shipping another rarepair. You know who you are.


End file.
